A Matter of Equals
by turbomagnus
Summary: '...shall mark him as his equal'. Few thought about what it might mean for Lord Voldemort to consider someone his equal. Somewhat dark, not for Weasley or Dumbledore fans.


Summary: '...shall mark him as his equal'. Few thought about what it might mean for Lord Voldemort to consider someone his equal.

Author's Note: Hopefully a new twist on the 'Weasley Love Potions' concept... Fair warning, read at your own risk as this can be considered somewhat dark in tone. I repeat, this fic is dark. If you don't like or can't read dark fics, do not continue past this point.

Disclaimer: "Harry Potter" and all associated characters and situations are the creation and property of J.K. Rowling and are used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

-o0O0o-

"A Matter of Equals"  
by J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

-o0o-

"To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts."  
\- The Third Law of Motion, Sir Issac Newton.

-o0O0o-

The magic-user known as Lord Voldemort hated. Hate flowed through his veins like the finest of wine - he hated Albus Dumbledore and everything the man stood for, among other reasons for taking away what he had believed made him special and different than the rest and forcing him into being just another wizard among many with the gift that he had previously believed was his alone; he hated muggles for the way they mistreated and hated anything they couldn't understand; he hated magical purebloods for the way they looked down upon anything that didn't fit their narrow worldview; he hated his father and paternal family for rejecting him over his mother's actions and he hated his mother and maternal family for their inbreeding and their beliefs...

And he hated love potions, hated them because they were the cause of his cursed existance. Without love potions he would never have lived to suffer as he had, so he hated love potions perhaps more than anything else. It was perhaps the only redeeming quality of a being who held no qualms about killing, torture, or using mind control to force an innocent to do it for him. Even his own followers had experienced his willingness to torture and kill, especially those foolish enough to be discovered using love potions in any form. One of the reasons he hated the government of magical Britain was how they could just wave off love potions as 'harmless pranks' or 'a good way to get a wizard interested'. It was, to Lord Voldemort, merely further proof that the corrupt ogliarchy of the Wizengamot needed to be destroyed and replaced with a firm guiding hand, his own.

Oddly enough, one of the few beings that he did not hate as much as others was the other victim of prophesy, the one with the power to defeat him and so cursed to be tied to him in an eternal struggle. The Potter child was, in a way, as much a victim as Lord Voldemort himself. As he had told the child, they were alike in many ways and, as he didn't say then, to hate Potter as perhaps he should would be as though to hate himself. In many ways, Potter was truly his equal, but where Lord Voldemort had broken the shackles of tradition and legality and now bent them to his will, Potter remained bound by them through the manipulations of Albus Dumbledore and those who bent the knee to the old fool. Manipulations which the old wizard sought to tighten from mere bindings into a noose that would strangle any possibility of Potter following the path which Lord Voldemort had blazed.

It was why Severus Snape now lay on the floor of Lord Voldemort's throne room, his mind destroyed and blood flowing from his mouth where the former spy had bitten off his own tongue. Unfortunately for the 'Half-Blood Prince', Lord Voldemort had never subscribed to the philosophy of 'don't kill the messenger', he understood that killing the messenger was meant to serve as a message in and of itself both to other potential messengers and the senders of those messages; like all things, killing the messenger had its uses. Among those was the simple expedient of removing a piece no longer required from the field before it could become a liability rather than an asset, and with the message he had just delivered, Snape had just outlived his usefulness.

Lesser beings seeking to use love potions on the only being that could be, was fated by prophecy to be, equal to Lord Voldemort was, as far as the Dark Lord was concerned, tanamount to using them on Lord Voldemort himself and would have to be punished appropriately.

-o0o-

"My faithful followers! For fourteen years, our enemies have believed our cause has been abandoned; that they have won this war for the very heart and soul of the wizarding world; our voice has been silent for too long. It is once more time for us to be heard!"

Lord Voldemort paused to allow his Death Eaters to cheer at this before he continued, "One of our number has been purged; Severus Snape believed he could spy on Lord Voldemort for Albus Dumbledore and go undetected, he was wrong and paid for his foolishness with his life. But we will not let this insult go unanswered. Dumbledore will pay..."

Several Death Eaters became nervous, concerned that their master was about to order an attack on the 'Defeater of Grindlewald' himself.

"He believes he can protect his followers from our wrath, that he alone can stop us from dealing with the mudbloods and blood traitors tainting our world. We will prove him wrong in blood and in doing so deprive him of some of his staunchest followers, a family of prominent blood traitors whose family head is a Ministry department head - an action which will allow us to put one of our own in his place once the family has been eliminated..."

Some among the gathering had begun to suspect who was about to be declared as our target.

"Tonight, we will kill every member of the blood traitor Weasley family from the Dumbledore-worshipping parents down to the youngest children and in doing so prove that we will allow no taint of muggles and muggle-lovers in our world down to the last generation!"

Lord Voldemort ignored the quiet mutterings of approval from his followers as he continued, "We shall burn their home and land and leave nothing but ash in our wake! Tomorrow, a red dawn will rise over the ash and all of those who oppose us will be left to see that there is no being reborn like the phoenix for those who stand against Lord Voldemort!"

This time, Lord Voldemort revelled in the response from his followers, enjoying their shouts and cheers of impending victory like a lesser man would take pleasure in a bird's song or a classic symphony.

-o0o-

Though he could not remember where it had been, Lord Voldemort had once read where pain had been compared to wine. At the moment, he was drinking deeply of his victims' pain, both of them, each their own unique vintage of horror and suffering. At the same time, however, the youngest male's weakness disgusted the Dark Lord. The boy was a disappointing example of a Pureblood; even some Muggles had shown more resistance than he to the Imperius Curse, especially when ordered to torture or kill one they called a friend or loved one. Those of his followers least willing to attack other Purebloods would have been reluctant to torture the only Weasley daughter, perhaps even managing to fight off an Imperius curse before being executed for their impertinence, but her own brother couldn't stop himself from following Lord Voldemort's command. Unfortunately, the boy was as weak magically as he was in will; barely able to conjure a proper Crucio even under the Dark Lord's Imperius. It was almost a relief to the leader of the Death Eaters when the girl collapsed catatonic as it meant he could move on to something which he now considered an extremely pleasurable concept. Raising his wand, Lord Voldemort broke the Imperius spell and waited only long enough for the youngest male Weasley to realize that his mind was once more his own before casting a different spell.

"Avada Kadavra!"

As the flash of green shot from the Dark Lord's wand and struck the blood traitor, dropping him lifelessly to the ground with nought but an expression of shock on his face, Voldemort turned his attention to the activities of his followers. The majority of the Weasley sons had done honor to their pure blood, despite being of traitorous stock, dying fighting and fighting well enough to have done harm even to members of the Death Eater Inner Circle who would, by Voldemort's command, be forced to bear their scars for a time as a mark of their lacking in skill. With the youngest dead by Voldemort's wand and four brothers slain by his followers, that left only the Ministry lackey to continue the blood-traitor name of Weasley, another taint on the purity of the wizarding world close to being purged.

Being finished with the weak-minded blood traitor allowed Voldemort to turn his attention to the actions of two of his Inner Circle - or to be more accurate one of his Inner Circle and one who was being made to re-earn the privilege of that position. It pleased him to see that Bellatrix's latest victim remained alive, drawing out their pain as befit one of the driving forces behind the actions against Lord Voldemort's destined foe to suffer. That he had learned they had spoken so openly of previous times committing such acts and gone unpunished, even considered close allies and friends of the so-called 'Leader of The Light', was beyond the Dark Lord's understanding until he learned of Dumbledore's recent plans. Of course Dumbledore would permit such people to exist so that he could use them to further his own ends; the Dark Lord was one of the few who knew the truth that Dumbledore was not as 'Light' as he portrayed himself. It had been chance and accident that had brought Lord Voldemort into possession of Grindlewald's own journals and the truth of his predecessor's relationship with the one who had 'defeated' him. It had been that incident that had turned him from merely seeking immortality to the idea of overthrowing an obviously corrupt Ministry - one that would give its highest award and not even seek to confirm that it had been earned or investigate the recipient - and establishing his own eternal rule.

Lord Voldemort chuckled coldly; his mind was wandering and while it was good to remember what led a person to where they were, it didn't do to allow it to overtake matters of immediate importance. Currently, one of those matters was bleeding their traitorous blood onto the ground from a dozen cuts and more being left every few seconds as Lucius slashed his wand back and forth like a whip, each spell loosed striking the patriarch of the blood-traitors and leaving its mark. The Dark Lord could see the mixture of gratitude from both being permitted redemption and allowed to finally end the situation between the Weasleys and his own family once and for all and it glowed on the Death Eater's face like the joy of a child. It was amusing, really. If Lord Voldemort had truly cared about the blood traitors and how they died, he would have slaughtered them himself. But, if it reinforced Malfoy's loyalty to think that he had been granted some form of boon, then so be it.

After another moment, the Dark Lord raised his hand, "Enough! Finish them and let us leave our message, it wouldn't do for Dumbledore and his lackspittles to miss it, after all..."

By the Dark Lord's command, a slash of Bellatrix's knife and Lucius casting an 'Avadra Kadavra' ended the lives of the Weasley parents, leaving the Death Eaters to form a semi-circle facing the dead family's former residence. Moments later, every wand was raised and casting the 'Fiendfyre' spell, causing a menagerie of creatures formed of flame to charge forth and begin rampaging into, around and through The Burrow, starting the building burning. Pointing his wand to the sky, Lord Voldemort cast one final spell, 'Morsmordre' itself, before gesturing for his Death Eaters to follow him as he spun in place and apparated away, leaving nothing but burning ruins and dead bodies to be found when the Aurors finally arrived...

-o0o-

It was with a heavy heart that Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, defeater of Grindlewald, Holder of the Order of Merlin First Class, reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, leader of the Order of the Phoenix and Leader of The Light apperated back into Hogwarts, taking advantage of his ability as Headmaster to do so through the school's protective wards. The conflict had already begun to accelerate its damage to magical society. The deaths of muggleborns and half-bloods, while any loss of magical blood was a waste, could be replaced as new muggleborns were found and brought into magical society. It wasn't so with pureblood lines, especially those which stretched back for generations, their loss could not be replaced in so easy a manner. Certainly a pureblood line that so eagerly embraced the Greater Good and accepted the Light when so many others chose to cling to the Dark could not be replaced by some foolish child with no concepts of what it truly meant to be magical, since so many of those muggleborn clinged on to muggle roots despite all the effort Hogwarts put into teaching them. More personally, the loss of the Weasley family would be a blow to his control over the prophsied one to defeat Tom and allow the Light to secure the future of the magical world. Without the two youngest Weasleys, the closest one to the boy was that muggleborn who, while properly obedient, questioned far too much and tried to impose her muggle opinions of equality and fairness into a society where they had no place. Magical society simply could not stand on a foundation of foreign, muggle principles; Dumbledore had seen even in his youth that muggles couldn't truly understand and accept magic and so their ways obviously couldn't work for magicals. It was as tragic as there being those who rejected the Light that there were also those who refused to accept this simple fact.

Not all of the teachers, for some reasons or others, were members of the Order of the Phoenix, so grimly Dumbledore left his office to descend to the Great Hall; it would fall to him to inform those who didn't already know of the deaths that had taken place. Inform them of the deaths, yes, and put them in their proper light as well. It wouldn't do for such a loss to dishearten or distract the Light - or worse, to harden their resolve irrevocably against the Dark and birth a refusal to allow the Death Eaters a chance at redemption, seeking to destroy them when their world needed to preserve all the pureblood lines it could.

Firm in his decision and certain that, while painful and troublesome now, the recent events wouldn't prevent the Light from ensuring a proper survival of the wizarding world, Dumbledore waved a hand to open the door to the Great Hall. Even though it was summer and the students were away, it never did to fail in making an inspiring entrance, after all. Unfortunately for the Headmaster, his entrance not only failed to inspire, it failed to draw any attention away from the spectacle taking place in the middle of the Great Hall. To be fair, however, a half-giant having an emotional near-breakdown would be the main focus of attention almost anywhere it was happening, not just in Hogwarts' Great Hall. Rather than attempt again to draw attention to himself, Dumbledore cast a silent and wandless Disillusionment spell on himself so that he could gather more information; after all, he had a reputation as 'The All-Knowing Albus Dumbledore' to it was a reputation built on eavesdropping, spying, bribary, blackmail, suborning government officials and misusing his own official positions mattered not one jot; it was all for The Greater Good in the end.

Slowly, he approached the event in the middle of the room until he could hear words through the tears and jumbled mumblings coming from Rubeus Hagrid; not that they could be made out easily or made much sense. Despite a few minutes listening while other staff members tried to calm their fellow, Dumbledore could only make out that someone was at the front gate of the school. With no obvious chance of making any sense out of the situation in the Great Hall, Dumbledore decided to again take advantage of 'Head's Privilege' and silent apparated out of the building and to the gates to see for himself what was happening. Landing a ways up the path that led to the school, he cancelled the Disillusionment and began to march towards the gates imperiously. He had only gotten close enough to see them clearly when he realised the reason for Hagrid's state; on the other side of the gates was Hogwarts' Potions Master, hanging by spikes from a wooden cross, what looked to be a note of some kind pinned to his chest with a knife - a potions knife, part of Dumbledore's brain noted clinically as the rest of his mind was in sudden shock and horror. The sight only caused the Headmaster to increase his speed of movement; the gates swinging open inward automatically at his approach to allow him to walk straight to Snape's hanging form without pause.

With a trembling hand, Dumbledore reached out and, leaving the knife in its place, pulled the note it held free and brought it up to where he could read it.

'Lord Voldemort's followers know what he demands of them and the price they will pay; do yours know the price you expect, 'Lord of The Light'?'

Slowly, stunned, he lowered the note as he attempted to process the words. That was when he saw what was still pinned to Snape's body; one of the flyers that the Ministry Of Magic regularly circulated regarding the illegality of love potions; flyers that were quite blatently ignored by all and sundry, with such potions even taught in curriculum at Hogwarts itself. The flyer's presence was meant to serve as a message to Dumbledore himself, a sign that Lord Voldemort knew the other wizard's plans, even that one.

The Leader of the Light inhaled sharply, 'This is not good...'


End file.
